Westwood Heights schools making changes at Hamady

WESTWOOD HEIGHTS -- Fights and assaults on teachers at Hamady Middle/High School have prompted school officials to send sixth0graders elsewhere this fall.

District officials believe that keeping this year's fifth-graders at the elementary school next year will make things at Hamady more manageable.

"I believe those 6th grade kids are suffering at the high school and demonstrating behaviors that they're peers are engaging in," said Westwood Heights Superintendent Deborah Hunter-Harvill, a former principal at a K-8 school in Detroit. "Those kids really don't need to be in that environment until we can clear that up."

One potential problem? Where to put the students.

Julie McManama, a kindergarten teacher at McMonagle Elementary, said there's only one empty classroom in the building.

The district has about 57 students in fifth-grade this year. Under the new plan, those students will remain at the elementary school, completing sixth grade there.

"There's not enough room," McManama said, who is also chairwoman of the grievance committee for the teachers union. "I think it's sad that instead of taking care of the problems at the high school immediately, they're going to leave the 6th graders at our school and create a mess, because there's not enough room."

Flint Journal extrasAt issue

• In an effort to reduce discipline problems at the middle/high school, Westwood Heights officials have voted to move sixth-graders out of the building.

• This fall, sixth-grade classes will be moved back to McMonagle Elementary, making the school a prekindergarten through sixth-grade building.

Ted Langdon who has grandchildren at the elementary school and volunteers there, said he's also concerned about space.

"I encourage the board to visit the school and look at the space and figure out where the kids would fit," Langdon said. "Once they're there in September, it'll be too late to say 'Oops. I goofed up."

Teachers at Hamady have complained that students are running wild through the building, committing violent acts against both students and teachers.

Hamady teacher Rolonda List told the Westwood Heights Board of Education at a meeting that she has to take medication just so that she can go to school without suffering an anxiety attack.

"This year is the first time I come to school and fear for my life and my sixth graders," said List. "We feel the violence, growing in our building like a cancer."

As a foster mother, Karen Orme has put 60 children through school in the district. This year, she refused to let her youngest two daughters attend.

"The things we hear are deplorable," said Orme who works as a librarian at Hamady. "(Students) will tell a teacher to (expletive) as soon as they see them."

Hunter-Harvill said the district has hired extra security to help get a handle on the situation.

"We need to put those kids in a safe haven," Hunter-Harvill said. "There's no point in sending them to the high school when the high school is so discombobulated.
"I believe it's the best thing for us to do."

The Board of Education approved the move last week.

The new format could also be a cost saving measure for the district, Hunter-Harvill said.

At Hamady, four sixth-grade teachers teach core subjects. At the elementary, the district would need half that many.

"By having self-contained teachers who stay in the classroom and teach all core subjects, we would only need two teachers," Hunter-Harvill said. "I don't think we'd have to lay the other teachers offer, but they'd probably be reassigned."

Tamasha Harrold, board treasurer and mother of a fifth-grader in the district, said she's excited about the plan.

"The data shows that sixth-graders do better in an elementary environment," Harrold said. "If we don't have those additional students (sixth-graders) to deal with at the (Hamady), we're at an advantage. We can better maintain the building," she said.
"If it doesn't work, we can go back."

In the meantime, officials at Hamady are working on getting parents more involved.
"We're working to get parents trained on how to deal with students and become hall monitors, so they can help us out with some of these things," Harrold said. "I don't want anybody to be afraid to go to school."